Originally Posted by
Darkumbra
Nope. Unless beards count.
Simple rule. No joking in security. Not for the PAX and certainly not for the agents of the state.
What would happen to me. If I replied to his attempt at humour 'here's a likely suspect!" with, "nope, not today. I left the bomb at home today!"
+1000
I think most flyers at the checkpoint are infrequent or first-time flyers who don't really know or understand TSA - certainly not enough to realize that the wrong joke can land them in a world of trouble all out of proportion to the joke.
Right or wrong, the TSA has established a zero-tolerance, 'no jokes allowed' policy at the checkpoint. When a TSO strays from that rule and slips into 'questionable' territory, that behavior can be misleading - not only to the pax he is addressing, but to other pax at the checkpoint or people the pax may talk to later.
Think what might happen to a pax who has a TSO joke with him in what would be a normal manner anywhere else in the country (good joke, bad joke, doesn't matter) - think what happens if the next time that pax flies, he initiates a similar foolish exchange to the wrong TSO, someone with a chip on his shoulder.